Balyko Shchuchynka

Balyko Shchuchynka

The village (491 residents) in Kaharlyk Region located on the slopes of a gully cutting the bank of Kaniv Dnipro Reservoir. The Balyko settlement was founded on the right bank of Dnipro late in the 16th c. Early in the 18th c, not far away, there appeared Chuchynka village, named after the nearby rivulet. In 1921, both villages were united and Balyko-Shchuchynka appeared; during the Great Patriotic war, the latter went down in history. On the high steep slope of Dnipro, there is one of the most majestic soldiery memorial complexes in Ukraine. It is devoted o the warriors of the First Ukrainian Front, which heroically fought on the Bukryn beachhead during the force crossing of Dnipro in the fall of 1943. The compositionally involved memorial was constructed on the occasion of the 40th Anniversary of the End of War (1985; sculptor V. Znoba, architect O. Zakharov); it consists of three sculptural groups which represent the stages of fight for Dnipro, stele with the names of killed in action, and Eternal Fire Bowl. The dominant twenty-seven-meter-high figure of a standard-bearer on a high pedestal symbolizes the victory over the enemy and sorrow for the lost ones. The sculpture of singer Boyan on the Dnipro steep slope is the finishing stroke of composition. It personifies the memory of people about heroes; it is especially appropriate here, as far as the Bukryn Memorial is built on the site of Kyivan Rus city-fortress Chuchyn mentioned in chronicles in 1110. In the 11 -13th c. it protected south approaches to the capital of Kyivan Rus as stated on the memorial plaque. In the village, there is the Bukryn Beachhead museum and monument to General Vatutin.